This invention relates to document preparation, storage, and retrieval. More particularly, this invention relates to a method and system for creating documents on sheet media which contain both visible and electronic versions of information and the documents produced thereby.
Sheet media documents are universally used for recording information for later reference. Originally prepared by hand, such documents are now frequently created by machines such as typewriters, word processors and personal computers. When created by hand, the original document is typically stored in some fashion, typically in an envelope or a file folder, for future reference. Machine copies are typically made and distributed to all persons having a perceived need for the copy and the information contained therein. When created using word processors and personal computers, the information comprising the document under creation is first manually entered using a keyboard to produce an electronic version, followed by printing a viewable version of the document on sheet media, such as plain paper. The electronic version is either permanently stored using some form of memory (such as a magnetic tape or disk), or erased from the temporary machine memory. If permanently stored, the document information may be later recalled and used to produce another sheet media copy. If erased, the electronic version is forever lost for future reference.
Existing documents in sheet media form are typically copied, when necessary, by means of a copying machine or a scanner attached to a computer. If an electronic version of the original sheet media document exists, a copy can be produced from the electronic version using conventional word processing copy routines. However, unless the electronic version of the document is stored in a completely unalterable manner, there is no guarantee that the reproduced version is identical to the original version.
The historical integrity of a sheet media document is only as good as the security procedures controlling the custodial process for the document. Important documents have been known to be altered for various improper purposes, in spite of security procedures which, on their face, would appear to prevent such document corruption. When an original, genuine document is altered in an unauthorized manner, the integrity of the document is compromised, which is highly undesirable.
U.S. Patent Application no. U.S. 2004/0044956 A1 published Mar. 4, 2004 discloses a method and system for creating documents on sheet media which guarantees the authenticity of the original document. Each original document contains both visible and unalterable electronic versions of the original information comprising the document. Each document optionally contains a visible indicator for facilitating the identification of a document under search in a storage facility containing many documents. More specifically, the original document comprises a sheet medium, such as paper or plastic, for providing a surface on which information can be formed, as by printing. An information storage and transfer circuit including an RFID integrated circuit and an antenna is carried by the sheet medium. The information storage and transfer circuit is capable of storing an electronic copy of the visible information in read-only form.
A document is prepared by forming the visible version of the information on one or both surfaces of the sheet medium, and storing an identical version of the information in the information storage and transfer circuit. After preparation of the document, the identity of the two versions may be verified by reading out the electronic version and comparing it with the visible version. After verification, the document can be passed on for the intended use.
A document can be checked for authenticity at any time by simply performing the verification process-viz., reading out the electronic version and comparing it with the visible version. If the two versions are identical, the document is genuine and unaltered from its original state.
In order to minimize any inductive interaction between circuits on different adjacent documents, the locations of the circuits can be varied from document to document so that the antennas of the circuits on different documents do not overlap.
In order to aid in the location of a document which has been stored along with other documents, a visible indicator, preferably an LED, is attached to a document along the upper margin. The visible indicator is connected to the RFID circuit and activated thereby whenever information is accessed from the circuit. The locations of the visible indicators may be staggered from document to document in order to facilitate viewing.
The technique disclosed in the above-referenced published patent application provides a convenient solution to the problem of document authentication. Moreover, the relative size of the information storage and transfer circuit is completely compatible with ordinary document paper, and the preparation and verification processes are easy to learn and perform. There are certain documents, however, for which this technique does not provide a complete solution to the problem of document authentication. More specifically, some documents are initially prepared in the conventional manner with spaces left for the insertion of additional information, such as hand-written dates, one or more hand-written signatures, an official seal and the like. Not until these spaces have been filled with the relevant information is a given document of this type legally complete. The above-referenced technique does not account for this additional information filled in after the original document has been prepared and an electronic version of the original information has been stored in the information storage and transfer circuit. Consequently, when a later authentication is performed only the original information can be verified since the later-added information does not appear in the originally prepared version of the document. As a result, for documents of this type only a partial verification can be reliably performed.